Police sentry in East University to continue says SL Minister

[TamilNet, Saturday, 23 April 2011, 11:51 GMT]
Sri Lankan Minister of Higher Education S.B.Dissanayake has said that the SL police sentry located in the premises of the Eastern University of Sri Lanka (EUSL) at Vanthaa'rumoolai in Batticaloa district would not be removed for any reason and the security of EUSL would be handed over to one of the three ‘security establishments’ of the government, the Sri Lanka Army (SLA), Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) or to the Special Task Force (SLF) if necessity arises.

During a visit to the ESUL over the dispute of locating police sentry and the demand made by the Tamil medium undergrads to remove it, the SL Minister said the police sentry has been located in the varsity premises to ensure the security of Sinhala medium undergrads.

The SL Minister Mr.Dissanayake participated in a discussion with the paramilitary faction leader and a deputy minister for Resettlement, Vinayagamoorthy Muralidharan alias Karuna, Batticaloa district TNA parliamentarians C.Yogeswaran and the EUSL Vice Chancellor K.Premakumar and EUSL officials.

Meanwhile University Student Union President T.Krishanth said a decision would be taken in future whether to locate the police sentry outside the varsity premises or to remove it, pending on the normalcy.

Two students of Mullaiththeevu district studying in the EUSL and the varsity supervisor were allegedly killed with the support of Karuna para military group after the establishment of the police sentry in EUSL premises in the year 2009.

Currently the administration of the EUSL and its academic activities are being carried out on the instruction of the Sri Lanka Army, Police and Karuna group.

The EUSL has become a political battle ground in the east, academic sources at the university alleged.